Picturehouse West Norwood

Picturehouse Cinemas is a network of cinemas in the United Kingdom, operated by Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd^[1] and owned by Cineworld.^[2] The company runs its own film distribution arm, Picturehouse Entertainment, which has released acclaimed films such as David Lowery's A Ghost Story, Sally Potter's The Party and Francis Lee's God's Own Country, Custody, Capernaum and The Wife. A previous iteration of this distribution arm, which focused largely on alternative content, was sold in 2017 to Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire and rebranded as Trafalgar Releasing.^[3]

The first cinema in the chain, Phoenix Picturehouse, opened in Oxford in 1989, but many of the others operated independently before then:^[4] the Duke of York's Picture House in Brighton, for example, opened in 1910 and is Britain's longest continually operating cinema.

On 17 March 2020, Picturehouse and all other movie cinema companies in the UK temporarily closed their UK cinemas, due to the COVID-19 pandemic,^[5] reopening them on 31 July. A second closure took place from 9 October 2020 until 17 May 2021, due to an insufficient amount of new film releases and a second wave of the pandemic closing indoor venues.^[6]

On 7 September 2022, their parent company Cineworld filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.^[7]

Locations

Current

The original Phoenix Picturehouse in Oxford.^[8]

Picturehouse in Bromley

Location	Name	Screens	Notes
Ashford	Ashford Picturehouse	6	Home to the UK's first laser projector.
Bath	Little Theatre Cinema	2
Bradford	Picturehouse at the Science + Media Museum[9]	3	Includes the first IMAX screen in Europe.
Brighton	Duke of York's	1	Grade II-listed, it opened 22 September 1910 and is Britain's oldest purpose-built cinema. It has a 20-foot sculpture of a can-can dancer's legs on its roof.[10]
Brighton	Duke's at Komedia	2
Cambridge	Arts Picturehouse	3[11]	The Regal Cinema opened in the city's Regent Street in 1937, was redeveloped in 1972 as a two-screen ABC cinema, and closed in 1997. Two years later, Wetherspoons installed a pub on the ground level of the building, with the Arts Picturehouse establishing a three-screen cinema above it.[11] The cinema hosts the annual Cambridge Film Festival.[11]
Chester	Chester Picturehouse	6
Edinburgh	Cameo	3	It originally opened in 1914 as the King's Cinema, acquired sound in 1930, was renamed The Cameo in 1949,[12] and was granted B-listed heritage status in 2006.[13]
Exeter	Exeter Picturehouse	2[14]	It was designed by Burrell Foley Fischer, opened in 1996 and has a first floor cafe.[15]
Henley-on-Thames	Regal	3
Liverpool	Picturehouse at FACT	3[16]	Has a bar which hosts events.[17]
London – Brixton	Ritzy	5
London – Bromley	Bromley Picturehouse	6	House in a 1936 art deco building by George Coles, the venue became a Picturehouse cinema in June 2019.[18] It has a bar and kitchen.[19]
London – Chelsea	Fulham Road Picturehouse	6	Formerly a Cineworld cinema, the venue opened as a Picturehouse on 8 December 2019.
London – Clapham	Clapham Picturehouse	4
London – Crouch End	Crouch End Picturehouse	5[20]	Has a restaurant and bar.[20] Its building, Rosebery House, was erected in the 1950s[21] as a factory and office,[22] and refurbished in 2015 by Panter Hudspith.[21][22]
London – Ealing	Ealing Picturehouse	8[23]	Opened October 2023.
London – East Dulwich	East Dulwich Picturehouse and Café	3
London - Finsbury Park	Finsbury Park Picturehouse	7	Opened September 2021.
London – Greenwich	Greenwich Picturehouse	5
London – Hackney Central	Hackney Picturehouse	6
London – Notting Hill	The Gate	1
London – Piccadilly	Picturehouse Central	7	Host venue for Sundance London Film Festival.[24] It has a membership scheme which gives access to a rooftop member's bar.[25]
London – Stratford	Stratford Picturehouse	4	Host venue for the Sci-Fi London Film Festival and the Fighting Spirit Film Festival.
London – West Norwood	West Norwood Picturehouse	4	The original Nettlefold Hall was reimagined as a Library and opened by Princess Margaret in 1969. In 1970 Stanley Kubrick filmed a scene for A Clockwork Orange in the old hall. It was refurbished and opened as a Picturehouse Cinema in 2018.
Norwich	Cinema City	3
Oxford	Phoenix	2
Southampton	Harbour Lights	2[26]	Designed by Burrell Foley Fischer, Harbour Lights opened in February 1995. The building received a Civic Trust Commendation, was shortlisted for a RIBA award for architecture,[27] and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times building of the year.[28] The cinema was voted Britain's Best-Loved Independent Cinema Empire readers in 2000.[27]
York	City Screen	3

Industrial action

In 2014, Cineworld was subject to industrial action owing to its refusal to pay the London living wage to its staff.^[32] Started by workers at the Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, the resulting Ritzy Living Wage campaign attracted the support of Eric Cantona^[33] and Terry Jones.^[34]

Industrial action resumed in October 2016 over the issue of the Living Wage, as well as recognition of the theatre union BECTU, parental pay and sick pay, and spread to six Picturehouse cinemas, making it the biggest strike action ever by cinema workers in the UK.^[35][36] Staff at the Ritzy Cinema were represented by BECTU while other cinemas were represented by the Picturehouse Staff Forum, a company union set up by management in 2003 and later run by Picturehouse staff.^[37]

Strikes continued into 2018, when workplace reps were found to be unfairly dismissed and were instructed to be reinstated,^[38] meanwhile Picturehouse claimed that they were one of the highest paying employers in the UK cinema industry.^[39]

In 2019, following a membership vote, the Staff Forum (run by Picturehouse management) was dissolved and later removed by the Certification Officer from the official list of trade unions.^[40] BECTU also called off the company boycott, stating "BECTU members have now agreed to suspend our Living Staff Living Wage campaign and call off the public boycott to focus on fighting for equal pay at the Ritzy and continuing to challenge the dismissal of other members. We won't rest until Ritzy and Picturehouse follows suit with other cinema employers we have successfully worked with and treats all its workers fairly."^[41] As of 2022, Picturehouse cinemas still do not pay their frontline staff living wage.^[42]

References

External links

• Official website